Platforms and Political Economy of Digital Childhood

Deakin University – School of Education - Research for Educational Impact (REDI)

We are currently seeking expressions of interest to undertake research at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, based at the Centre’s Deakin University node.

About the Centre:

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child is the world’s first research centre dedicated to creating positive digital childhoods for all Australian children.

Led by and headquartered at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, the Centre comprises researchers from six Australian universities, including Deakin University. The Centre’s research innovates and intersects across a range of cross-disciplinary projects, all connected, providing evidence focused on three key areas – Healthy Child, Educated Child and Connected Child. The heart of the Centre’s research program is its Longitudinal Family Study – a seven-year study of 3000 Australian families, focusing on children from birth to eight years of age.

Scholarship opportunity:

The Platforms and Political Economy of Digital Childhood scholarship will explore the role of digital platforms in the lives of young children and their families; and/or how political economy theories and approaches can be applied to aspects of ‘digital childhood’; and/or how aspects of commercialisation of childhood take place on or through digital technologies and their platforms.

This scholarship is a unique opportunity for students to be involved in research that will contribute to an innovative body of knowledge on children’s digital experiences, working with supervisors who are leaders in their field to develop their research practice.

The Deakin node of the Centre sits within the Strategic Research Centre in Education, Research for Educational Impact (REDI), located in the School of Education at Deakin University. Embedded in the Deakin node, the successful candidates will benefit from a research intensive and collegial environment.

A scholarship of $34,880 per annum for a period of 3 years will be provided to the successful applicants.

This project will be supervised by one or more of the Centre’s Chief Investigators at Deakin University –

·      Professor Julian Sefton-Green

·      Dr Luci Pangrazio

·      Professor Louise Paatsch

To be eligible you must:

· be a domestic candidate or international candidate. Domestic includes candidates with Australian Citizenship, Australian Permanent Residency or New Zealand Citizenship.

· meet Deakin's PhD entry requirements

· be enrolling full time or part time and hold an honours degree (first class) or an equivalent standard master's degree with a substantial research component.

· Please refer to the research degree entry pathways page for further information.

To apply for this opportunity, please visit https://www.deakin.edu.au/study/fees-and-scholarships/scholarships/find-a-scholarship/hdr-scholarship-digital-child and click on the Apply Now button at the bottom of the screen. This will take you to an EOI form to submit.